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Sunday, October 14, 2007

It's 10:10 am and the birds have slowed down a tad. But it's been a really good morning.

By sun-up we had 12 species, including a northern saw-whet owl that called five times from our pines. We also added the great-horned, making this a four-owl Sit.

Jim McCormac and Jason Larson were the first guest Sitters to show. And they immediately started adding birds to the list. Jen Sauter and Judy Kolo-Rose arrived after dawn, helping us get to 26 species by 7:30 am.

By the time Mike and Chris Austin joined us, we were passing 30 species. We hit 43 by 8 am and 46 by 8:20. Jon Benedetti came over from West Virginia and helped us get over the half-century mark.

The list currently stands at 53 species and, as always, the morning rush is over. Every bird we get from here on will be tough. 65 is the record we want to break. We've got a ways to go.

About Bill

Bill of the Birds

Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest by day. He's also a keen birder, the author of many books, a dad, a field trip leader, an ecotourism consultant, a guitar player, the host of the "This Birding Life" podcast, a regular speaker/performer on the birding festival circuit, a gentleman farmer, and a fungi to be around. His North American life list is somewhere between 673 and 675. His favorite bird is the red-headed woodpecker. His "spark bird" was a snowy owl. He has watched birds in 25 countries and 44 states. But his favorite place to watch birds is on the 80-acre farm he shares with his wife, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose. Some kind person once called Bill "The Pied Piper of Birding" and he has been trying to live up to that moniker ever since.